How many rounds do you reload?

At my peak of shooting USPSA shooting I was loading my body weight a season in 180gr 40 cal bullets. That equated to about 8000 rd a year plus some shotgun and hunting ammo. My competitive shooting interest has shifted to NRL22 (lucky coincident giving the current market) but I am loading more ammo for obscure rounds so I am probably still in the low thousands for the past few years. If I can find some Small Rifle Primer I am probably going to take all the skills I have honed in NRL22 competition and try my hand at some more PRS shooting but right now without primers I only have enough ammo for a match or two.

Depends on how many you load and if its worth it to you. Only you can answer that question. For a delta of 10.5 cents if you load/shoot 1000 rounds a year that is only $105/year increase. Not bad spread out over a year. If you shoot 5000 per year or compete and shoot more you see it can be $500-1000 more per year. It starts adding up, and that is only pistol.

I have averaged 3500 rounds per year over the past 4 years of small pistol alone. Last year was down due to Covid and closures. Counting just primer price increases if I had to pay todays prices I'm looking at a hit of around a $400 increase/year just to shoot pistol. Luckily I'm loading with components that were bought 2+ years ago. I'm hoping that by the time I have to buy things will moderate a little.

-Jeff

I have no clue to be honest.

I'm a weekend shooter and seasonal hunter so I hand load way more than I actually need to just because I like the process of wringing the most out of a load. To me, handgun load development is a fun game. Shooing targets is just a way to test my skills at that game. Loading for rifles is completely different. I stick to the recipes that work and don't scribble outside the lines.

Lots of pistol. Mostly 9mm and a little 380. Maybe shoot 1000 - 1500 per year. I found a case of SPP back in October 2020. I should be good until the next election.

I shoot only a few of boxes of rifle ammo per year. At this rate, I have a brick of large rifle primers I bought in 2019 that should last me a decade.

I don’t do a lot of loading anymore. Very little to no load development to do, and am also conserving components! Most shooting is being done with 22’s......handguns and rifles! memtb

My son and I make monthly trips to our cast handgun bullet supplier, sometimes more often.
Typically we buy in excess of 3000 bullets per trip spread out over 9mm, 10mm, .357, .41, .44 and .45cal bullets, depending on useage the previous month.
That doesn't include jacketed handgun bullets or rifle bullets.

We tend to shoot a lot.

My last several primers purchases have been:

$39/1,000 for small pistol

$49.99/1,000 small pistol

$45/1,000 for small rifle mag

$54/1,000 CCI #41

Not pre CoVid/election prices, but not outrageous either. But all off the shelf with no hazmat or shipping fees.

All of these purchases were within the last 8 weeks. That’s why I don’t even look at primers online anymore.

PADoubleX said:

.... Am I justifying my habit or is it not as bad as it seems?

Click to expand...

Yes

I think that's the answer you wanted to hear, right? Well anyways there is nothing wrong with enjoying a hobby. We can quibble all we like about whether it saves money or not. In the end it's no different than someone paying the country club membership to play golf every day instead of daily greens fees. You pay less per game while playing a whole heap more.

I used to load at least 1000 a month years ago before mail order bulk ammo became a thing. Even though I still don't bother with stuff I already have in large quantities of loaded ammo like 223 or 9mm, I do keep dies and components on hand if the need should arise. I do however still run the presses every month or two to load up a few hundred 30-06, 38, and 44 at a time so maybe running 2000-ish per year.

It bears repeating -- when components and loaded ammo get cheap again (it will, give it a year or two) build yourself a good working inventory. Then when we get another cycle of lean times the sky doesn't fall all around us.

OP, since 2012, I usually load around 4K per year. All my components were purchased at PreCovid prices. This last year loading was less, as I didn't shoot as much. I have to get back to the bench as my 9MM stash is very low at this time. Thankfully, it will be a little while before I have to replenish my primer or powder supply.
PreCovid, my primer prices were almost always less than 3.5 cents, usually in the 2.0-2.6 cent range. This was across the board for SPP, SRP, LPP, and LRP. But, I tend to buy in bulk quantities.

Like mcb when I was shooting IDPA, plates and pins I was shooting body weight about 7k of 45ACP 225gr RNFPs a year. Took a hiatus then started playing with wheelguns (38/357) and now a Sig365 (9mm) plus I'm getting the girlfriend into plates matches (45ACP). I'm down to a few hundred a year. If primers become available and somewhat affordable I'll probably settle in between 1 & 2k a year. I'll buy factory ammo but I like to tailor my loads to what I'm shooting.

I am still working on the primers I paid $12 per K for and am loading 8-12k handgun and 4K rifle on average for the last few years. I can continue for about 5 years before I need to slow down my usage. It is going to cost considerably more to restock if things do not drop substantially when we go back to "normal". That said, I might have to cut back a bit with being retired and all.
I might be way low on those estimates BTW.

Historically, I’d load and shoot 4000-5000 rounds per year.

I’ve not been shooting as much for the last year or so. Not because of lack of components. I’ve been busy with other things.

I don't reload like I did, but have enough powder and primers to last until I am dead and gone. I might shoot a couple thousand rounds a year now. That is rifle and pistol and not counting rimfire. Still have a few thousand 22LR rounds so I'm good.

That was depressing, made me realize, I only have about 18 months of primers, max. Hopefully prices will come down before that.

I only reload for rifles and only find time to hit the range once a month. I might reload 20 for my bolt action rifle and 40 for my AR-10 or for my (new to me) Garand. Would like to start reloading for my AR-15, but I am not paying ridiculous prices for small rifle primers. Got enough components to reload 6mm Rem, 308, and 30-06 for a long time.

The poll should have included the options of:

Greater than 10,000
Greater than 20,000

Now days I don't reload anything, but play a lot of golf.

18 trips to the range so far in 2021. Average 300 rds per session. A thirty percent decline in volume compared to last year.

I'm down to 5000 or less from a high of 20,000 or more. Part of the reason is that my MS makes shooting and the work of loading and unloading gear for the range more difficult for me. I've also lost some of my shooting buddies, thankfully mostly due to moves.

I used to shoot somewhere in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 rounds per year, almost all reloaded. The last several years have brought along some temporary changes in my shooting habits (not related to politics or component shortages). Eventually I will likely return to my normal expenditure of ammo.

To keep the guns fed I routinely have well over 50 lbs of powder and 30-40,000 primers at any given time (anything over fire code limits gets stored offsite).

I'd like to shoot a box of rifle ammo through my .243 once a week, basically to improve my marksmanship for deer season. So far this year I think I've only averaged about once every other week, though. Looking to upgrade my rimfire to supplement that as well.

I only started last year and reloaded about 850 rounds of 38 Special.